The Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation presents The feminine in abstract paintingorganized by Jennifer Samet and Andrea Belag, on view in New York until July 15.
This group exhibition includes paintings by Etel Adnan, Candida Alvarez, Lisa Beck, Andrea Belag, Lecia Dole-Recio, Pam Glick, Joanne Greenbaum, Clare Grill, Mary Heilmann, Shirley Kaneda, Al Loving, Jiha Moon, Rebecca Morris, James (Jamie) Nares, Pat Passlof, Sandira Payne, Erika Ranee, Miriam Schapiro, Peter Shear, Alan Shields, Amy Sillman and Lesley Vance.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog featuring “Soft Power”, an essay by Jennifer Samet, and “Painting and its Others: In the Realm of the Feminine” by Shirley Kaneda, first published in Art review in 1991.
The feminine in abstract painting explores the feminine through aesthetics, not identity or gender. These artistic choices, for example, use an open process and vulnerability – one must recognize the trauma of having works by women described as “feminine” in a derogatory way, as something an artist must overcome. However, through today’s lens, we can analyze and develop a richer understanding that is not defined by success or lack of success. The exhibition considers the historical basis of its associations with the feminine and draws attention to how we determine what to categorize as such.
The painter Lecia Dole-Recio sees her abstraction as political: “I think of non-hierarchical environments. It informs how I work. If one thing is too prominent, you have to counterbalance it by making a little more noise in another area… The ideal is not to be forced to define yourself as such or such a thing, in terms of gender or sexual orientation. This is what I mean by ambiguity: something that cannot necessarily be explained right away.
Co-curator Jennifer Samet concludes: “I’m drawn to painting that seduces rather than declares, and it’s a kind of ‘soft power’ that I associate with the feminine. The space of desire between desire and having – which painting, especially abstraction, ultimately represents – is its power.
Imagined for the Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation with attention to contemporary discourse on gender, The feminine in abstract painting summarizes six years of reflection between the curators. Samet describes the feminine as a slippery concept, but rewarding and worth the risk.
For more information, visit resnickpasslof.org.
This exhibition program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the town hall.
